With origins in Spain, sangria is a wine punch of red wine, sliced fruit, honey or orange juice, and a little bit of brandy or other spirits. It’s a wonderful summer drink to serve at parties and is easy to make. The Internet is full of different recipes, such as this classic version; one with Grand Marnier, lemons and oranges; or this Portuguese sangria, which calls for apples, cinnamon and 7-Up. An easy way to start is with La Tienda’s Real Sangria Red Wine with Fruit Flavors, an excellent base. For an authentic Spanish touch, serve your sangria from La Tienda’s brightly painted ceramic pitcher ($45). Show off your sangria’s brilliant colors with this clear, elegant pitcher from Sur La Table ($18). If you expect your guests to get a little wild, you might want to buy the Container Store’s “unbreakable” clear polycarbonate pitcher ($35). Your guests will love sipping from these handcrafted Spanish sangria glasses made of recycled glass ($30 for set of six). If sangria is Spain’s most famous drink, then paella is probably its most famous dish, and the two pair up well. Spain Recipes has a selection of good paella recipes, as well as sangria recipes. Penelope Casas’ cookbook, Paella! Spectacular Rice Dishes from Spain ($23) will keep you experimenting in the kitchen all summer. Or you could team up your sangria with a Spanish tapas sampler box, which includes ham, cured chorizo, peppers and stuffed olives, along with a mini paella pan ($75).

A fresh, colorful salad, laden with bright vegetables and creative dressings and toppings, is a must for any summer get-together. With summer approaching, it’s a perfect time to refresh your salad ingredients and serving dishes. Selecting an unusual salad bowl will help make your contribution to the potluck stand out, especially if you use a ceramic dish. The Artful Home is a site where many artisans sell their work. Artist Peggy Crago hand-painted this lovely salad bowl with pears, leaves and berries and finished it with a majolica glaze. It’s so beautiful it could be a stand-alone piece of display art in your home, in addition to gracing your table ($275) . This French Home Gourmet ceramic salad bowl is green and eye-catching, because it is shaped like a sunflower ($62); it can also be used as a baking dish. Firenze Gifts, which sells Italian-made products, carries a wide selection of unique bowls, including this green Orvieto Italian ceramic scalloped salad bowl, with a fanciful painted design of a rooster ($120). Some people prefer wooden bowls, because they are lighter and more durable, like this classic tea-stained wooden salad bowls and servers ($3 to $15; pictured). For the perfect salad, try the red KitchenAid salad spinner to whirl excess water off of the salad greens (on sale for $30). The MoMA Store’s stainless steel salad spinner is a design statement in itself, with a patented pump, brake button and a clear lid ($55). You don’t always have to serve salad in little bowls. The Food Network Store sells these clever white square salad plates by BIA Cordon Bleu ($30 for a set of four). A good salad cookbook like Jennifer Chandler’s Simply Salads contains more than 100 recipes for gourmet salads and dressings ($16.50). Another way to make your salad exceptional is by using a unique dressing, such as Vivienne’s Romano Cheese Dressing, a zesty, rich dressing for salad that won an award from the Fancy Food Show ($34 for a six-pack). Prosperi Dressings’ selections include tomato ginger, balsamic vinaigrette and Caesar ($12 for a three-pack). At Igourmet, you can peruse a huge selection of gourmet salad recipes, as well as order high-quality olive oil and vinegar, key ingredients in homemade dressings. L’Olivier’s extra virgin olive oil comes from France and has a fruity, mild olive flavor ($30). L’Olivier’s fruit vinegars come in variety of flavors ($15), and its acetified honey dressing is a sweet-and-sour accompaniment for salads and vegetable dishes ($25).

According to the people behind the Hint Mint company, “Mints are more than just candy, more than simple breath aids, they’re contemporary accessories.” That’s why their mints come in beautifully curved and decorated tins and are made without gelatin or other animal byproducts. Like fine art, each confection is presented as a distinct “series”; there’s the “classic series,” with flavors such as green tea and chocolate mint (12-pack for $29.40; 144-pack case for $324), the “artist series,” which come packaged in limited edition tins designedby a different artist each year, and the “awareness series,” from which the company donates its profit to Avon’s Fund for Breast Cancer. Not to be undone, Neiman Marcus’ private label mints, also free of animal products, “arrive fashionably dressed” in a tin featuring the store’s 100th anniversary photograph. ($20 for four tins, 38 mints in each.) And Oral Fixation’s fabulous fruit sugar free breathmints come in minimalist brushed metal tins “reminiscent of 1920s cigarette cases… perfectly sized to hold credit cards and business cards.” For those of us who just want to get rid of the taste and smell of lunch, there are many lower-priced alternatives to choose from. For example, six 1.75 oz tins of no-animal-products Myntz! Green Tea with Ginseng are only $12 at the company’s web site. 24 rolls of Breathsavers vanilla mints, which “neutralize not mask” odors, are roughly $1 each at Candy Direct. And to make another kind of statement with your mints, consider National Embarrassmints: Bush breath mints ($4 per tin). Need a gag gift? There are lots more mints in provocative tins and boxes at See Fred.

The idea that good things are worth waiting for is disappearing in our faster-equals-better culture. Convenience and instant gratification are what we desire, and when it comes to cold wine, we can have it even if we forgot to put the bottle in the fridge. The Ravi instant wine chiller ($50; pictured) transforms room temperature chardonnay, pinot grigio, even vodka as you pour, provided you keep this amazing device in the freezer when not in use. When needed, just insert it into your wine bottle and pour. The wine passes through a frozen steel chamber on its way to your glass, arriving delectably chilled. Of course, there isn’t a whole lot of romance or visual flair with Ravi. While you’re sipping that first delicious glass or two with a friend who just happened by, let them know not everything has to be spur of the moment. Place the rest of the bottle in an illuminated ambiance chilller ($180) or a Nice Ice wine chiller mold ($25). These are perfect for parties. The illuminated chiller uses a rechargeable eight-hour battery or can be plugged in for nonstop action. As your bottle soaks in the bucket of plain old ice — it still works like a charm to make things cold — the bucket glows and slowly changes color from yellow to green to blue to violet to pink to red. The Nice Ice mold will wow your guests and give you a chance to be creative. Just fill it with water and fruit (or other freezables), freeze and voilà: you’ve got a decorative cooler for the next few hours (until the mold melts into the attached base). True, these are really more holder than fast chiller. If you want something worthy of a professional, Sharper Image has the Waring pro double-bottle wine chiller ($150). It accommodates two bottles, each with its own temperature control and features a library of 33 presets for various types of wine. Need a gift for someone who’s serious about wine? Look no further than this baby.

With names like “Fixx,” “Cocaine,” “Bong Water” and “Xtreme Shock,” is the ever-growing appeal of energy drinks any surprise? According to a 2007 report by market research firm Mintel, approximately 65 percent of those who consume these drinks are male and under 35 years of age. Packaged in cans, like soda, the strongest of the drinks contain high levels of caffeine, which make them attractive study aids, work-out enhancers, even cocktail mixers. (Watch an amusing commercial for one such drink at YouTube.) Predictions are that the market for these drinks will hit $6 billion or more annually by 2010 as groups such as young professional women are targeted with gentler-named products. But do they work and are they safe? At Energy Drink Ratings and Taurine Rules, blogs dedicated to reviewing the hundreds of drinks on the market, you can learn which drinks are strongest, best tasting, most popular, least fattening, cheapest, etc. We like the “Best Energy Drink” page at Energy Drink Ratings. It’s over a year old but lists the top five strongest drinks — Wired X505, 5-Hour Energy, Fixx, Redline and Cocaine — from the 250-plus beverages the author has reviewed, with links to the original review and where to purchase the drink online. For example, Redline Energy Drink made the top five strongest drinks, so we linked to the review and learned that the active ingredients are caffeine, Evoburn, hydroxy, yerba mate and green tea and that it isn’t a conventional energy beverage, but rather “falls more into the category of fat burners or thermogenics … you cannot get these things at gas stations or grocery stores. You have to get it online or at a vitamin store like GNC.” The author goes on to a “final judgment” of Redline that reads, “It tastes like crap, it costs too much but the kick you get from this freakin’ thing is amazing.” There are concerns about the dangers of energy drinks. Please read up on them and, if you choose to consume these beverages, do so responsibly.

Mom always said not to procrastinate. But we guess you weren’t always listening: Mother’s Day is just four days away, but thanks to a wide range of last-minute gift options on the Web, your Mom doesn’t have to be empty-handed Sunday. Wow her with a fabulous blue box from Tiffany & Co. — order online by Friday at noon and you’ll have it in time for Sunday’s visit. Try a Mom heart locket pendant in sterling silver ($250) and a chain to hang it on ($50). If you’re looking for a lower-priced option, the silk scarf is chic and budget-friendly ($50). Go the traditional route and send Mom a bouquet of flowers. 1-800-FLOWERS offers same-day delivery on select arrangements. The strawberry floral margarita is a unique take on the standard gift ($70), while the Mother’s Love bouquet goes the more traditional route ($80). Order by 1 p.m. ET Thursday at Harry & David for overnight delivery on a variety of foodie gifts. The deluxe Mother’s Day tower features pears, Moose Munch, chocolate truffles and gourmet brownies ($50). Appeal to Mom’s sweet tooth with a Tower of Chocolates ($40). Order up until 2 p.m. ET Thursday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art store for Mother’s Day delivery. The Parisian dragonfly pin is a nod to spring’s nature-inspired fashions ($85; pictured), while the shoes card case can help Mom look stylish while networking ($30). Expedited shipping today from Sephora will ensure the arrival of Marc Jacobs’ limited-edition Daisy gift set, including eau de toilette spray, body lotion and a purse-sized cologne ($75). Can’t personally deliver Mom breakfast in bed like the good old days? Send her Philosophy’s Breakfast in Bed kit, which features three scented hair and body cleansers in flavors like Cafe au Lait, Belgian Waffles and Fresh Cream ($30).